Housing and the Environment Objectives

1) To ensure that any new housing development promotes good townscape principles (mass, density, layout) and is visually attractive, compatible with the character of the surrounding area, and is of a scale, design and finish appropriate to our rural locality.

2) To support affordable homes for local people who are low or moderate income earners.

3) To sensitively deliver high quality homes across a range of housing mix, sizes and types that are integrated into the community, and reflect both current and future housing needs of the community.

4) To conserve and enhance the environment, ecosystem and biodiversity, ensuring that new development gives protection to habitats and existing wildlife.

4.1) To ensure wherever possible that any new development retains existing mature trees and hedgerows.

4.2) To maintain and enhance the wooded and rural character of the village by encouraging the integration of soft landscaping in new developments and where appropriate screening and integration with any adjacent countryside.

5) To promote access to adequate and high quality, private, open outdoor (garden) space for all new dwellings.

6) To create a strong visual identity for the village of Hurst Green.

6.1) Define the parish’s gateways and install ‘white gate’ fences at road entrances to Swiftsden, Silver Hill and Hurst Green.

6.2) Create and install new village signs in Hurst Green, Swiftsden and Silver Hill.

7) To protect, maintain and enhance the nationally and locally important heritage assets and historic character, by guiding development that is sympathetic with our open landscape setting.

8) In conjunction with infrastructure improvements, improve the streetscape within the community.

8.1) Promote connections between areas of the village, without the need to use pathways adjoining the strategic road network (A21).

8.2) Produce an individual street scene improvement plan for each road in the Parish that will remove clutter and provide a greater sense of place.

8.3) Support the re-creation of the village green and to seek to provide new public green space.

9) To protect views of key buildings and landscapes and encourage any new developments to provide access to improvement of vistas.

9.1) Produce a policy that requires planning applications to consider and demonstrate the effect of the development on views or key buildings.

Today’s challenges